1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of telecommunications. More particularly, the present invention relates to reliably constructing and operating asynchronous transfer mode (ATM)-based telecommunications networks.
2. Background Information
Tandem replacement using voice trunking over ATM (VTOA) technology, described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/287,092, to George C. ALLEN Jr. et al., entitled “ATM-based Distributed Virtual Tandem Switching System,” filed on Apr. 7, 1999, is one application of an ATM distributed network system architecture. The architecture represents a new paradigm of networking that requires re-thinking of how to run networks. An important consideration is how to construct and operate the new ATM-based virtual tandem switch as reliably as possible and, definitely, no less reliably than current time division multiplexed (TDM) tandems.
The ATM-based virtual tandem system impacts system reliability. On one hand, the virtual tandem improves system reliability by distributing its components geographically, localizing the impact of failures. On the other hand, a greater number of network elements is involved, and thus the number of occurrences of element failures may increase. Because the virtual tandem is designed to serve an entire metropolitan area, it is imperative for the virtual tandem's design to meet the highest level of survivability.
The present invention identifies potential failure points in the virtual tandem and provides solutions to reduce and survive failures. The solutions, in turn, place design and engineering requirements upon equipment vendors and companies operating the virtual tandem. It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to employ these requirements for use in the design of the network elements and for engineering the networks.
With reference to FIG. 1 of the drawings, standard call processing employs end offices 10 connected via tandem trunks 12, direct trunks 14, or both tandem trunks 12 and direct trunks 14. Each trunk 12, 14 is a digital service level 0 (DS0), operating at 64 kbps, that is transmitted between the switching offices 10 in a time division multiplexed manner. Each end office 10 connects to its neighboring end office 10 and the tandem office 16 using separate trunk groups. In this system, trunk groups are forecasted and pre-provisioned with dedicated bandwidth, which may lead to inefficiency and high operations cost.
A new voice trunking system using ATM technology has been proposed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/287,092, entitled “ATM-Based Distributed Virtual Tandem Switching System.” In this system, shown in FIG. 2, voice trunks from end office switches 20, 26 are converted to ATM cells by a first or second trunk inter-working function (T-IWF) device 22, 24. The T-IWFs 22, 24 are distributed to each end office 20, 26, and are controlled by a centralized control and signaling inter-working function (CS-IWF) device 28. The CS-IWF 28 performs call control functions as well as conversion between the narrowband Signaling System No. 7 (SS7) protocol and a broadband signaling protocol. The T-IWFs 22, 24, CS-IWF 28, and the ATM network 30 form the ATM-based distributed virtual tandem switching system. According to this voice trunking over ATM (VTOA) architecture, trunks are no longer statistically provisioned as DS0 time slots. Instead, the trunks are realized through dynamically established switched virtual connections (SVCs), thus eliminating the need to provision separate trunk groups to different destinations, as done in TDM-based trunking networks.